Rohrberg retires after 46 years at UNMC

When Mary Kay Rohrberg started working as a clerk in the division of medical records for UNMC in 1975, she earned $1.87 an hour.

"It wasn’t much, but that was the going rate at the time," Rohrberg said.

Mary Kay Rohrberg

After 46 years, Rohrberg will retire today.

As she looks back over the years, Rohrberg marvels at the changes she’s seen.

The Durham Research Towers now stand where she once walked through the halls of the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute collecting the paper records of patients to be filed.

The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center looms over the grounds of what once was the home to a children’s hospital.

Rohrberg recalls the day the division of medical records moved from the third and fourth floors of University Tower to new offices in the recently constructed Durham Outpatient Center.

"All of us who worked in medical records stayed until 1 a.m. on a Friday night moving all those paper records," she said.

Rohrberg spent 23 years working in medical records before taking a position as an office associate in the department of neurosurgery in 1998 and then transplant surgery in 2013.

Wherever she worked, Rohrberg said she always felt a strong sense of cameraderie.

"When Dr. Arun Patil, who I had been working for in neurosurgery took a position at another institution, I chose to stay at UNMC because it’s always felt like family to me," Rohrberg said.

And that family is going to miss her, said Vickey De Lozier-Cordoba, who worked alongside Rohrberg in transplant surgery.

"She is a caring individual who dedicated herself to work. I would like to wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement," De Lozier-Cordoba said.

"Mary Kay always left snacks on my desk when she saw I was operating all day and night. She saved me," said Arika Hoffman, MD.

Tracy Hanzek, an administrator in the department of transplant surgery, said she always appreciated and will miss Rohrberg’s sense of humor.

"Mary Kay brought years of networking and personal connections with her that were invaluable. She was a great resource for us as she ‘had some ins’ that proved to be very beneficial in helping us provide more efficient care for our patients," Hanzek said.

As for the future, Rohrberg plans to spend more time with the new addition to her family, a great grandson born in September in Billings, Montana, as well as a few more trips to Hawaii to visit her daughter who lives there.

And her friends just might run into her working at a part-time job in the future, because Rohrberg said she just "can’t imagine not working."